Poster of the Bungaku-za production of Nasza klasa
Rehearsals for the Japanese production of Our Class are underway in Tokyo’s Bungaku-za theatre. The Japanese premiere is directed by Hisao Takase. Further stagings are scheduled to take place in Rome, as Słobodzianek’s drama gathers growing international interest
In 1941, some 1600 Polish Jews were burned alive in the Polish town of Jedwabne. The officially accepted version of history blames the Nazi occupant, but two Polish studies have shown that the perpetrators of the slaughter were in fact the victims’ classmates and neighbours.
Słobodzianek's play is one of the first works invoking the Jedwabne atrocity. The writer gathered most of the details from books by historians and journalists (including Jan T. Gross and Anna Bikont), but this real-life material underwent a far-reaching process of transformation. In 14 scenes/lessons Słobodzianek follows a group of Poles and Jews who were classmates before the war, in a small town rather like Jedwabne - telling their story from those days until our times.
Our Class tells the story of collective guilt, and a truth that nobody seems to have a need of understanding. It tells a story that cannot be judged, cannot be reversed, and cannot even be explained. The play takes place at such a moment in history, when, following emotional speeches of a crazed nationalism, and given religious and ethnic differences in various cities and towns, previous friends become ultimate enemies overnight.
The Japanese title of the production is taken from the original Nasza klasa - Nasha kurasa. We Studied Together. 14 Lessons of History. The Bungaku-za website thus describes the Polish writer’s piece:
The story takes place in a small town in north-eastern Poland, between 1930s up until the year 2003. Classmates tell us their stories with their eyes, the hearts, and with words. It is as if they are learning history from scratch, in order to regain a time forever lost. Is it possible to speak of history through the medium of drama? This is the pertinent challenge that we take up.
The Italian premiere of Our Class is scheduled for the 4th of June 2012. Teatro Sala Uno in Rome hosts the play directed by Michele Gieleta, with a cast of students from the Theatre School Sofia Amendolea.
The world premiere of Our Class. History in 14 lessons took place at the National Theatre in London in 2009. Słobodzianek’s dramatic craft was appreciated by British theatre critics. Henry Hitchins stated in his review for the Evening Standard
This is grueling, harrowing theatre but Slobodzianek has trenchant things to say about faith, honour and patriotism, and he majestically conveys a sense of history as a living organism. (…) Slobodzianek is as concerned with the richly threaded loom of memory as he is with ethnic tensions. In portraying his characters’ quarrying of memory, he shows he is a master of arresting detail
The play was also staged by the Theatre Studio 180 in Toronto, the Teatro Factoria Escncia Internacional in Barcelona, Madrid's Teatro Fernán Gómez, the Katon Theatre in Budapest, the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia and the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company. These numerous international productions prove the universal value of the text, which is the only play to win Poland’s most prestigious literary prize, the Nike Literary Award to date.
The playwritght Tadeusz Słobodzianek explains
One must constantly confront the trauma of Polish-Jewish relations. I believe that it is possible to accomplish showing them in a different light, not in tragic and explicit manner, but in a way that would be more than just thought-provoking - a way that would induce a katharsis, leaving none indifferent to the subject.
Ondrej Spišák, a Slovak director who lives and works in Poland staged the play's Polish premiere in Warsaw’s Teatr na Woli. He thus commented on Słobodzianek’s text:
Nasza klasa does not try to preach. It tells a story which is meant to provoke questions. The drama takes up events which occurred in Eastern Poland and at the same time it is a universal story which becomes very telling wherever deep ethnic conflicts have taken place, and a private life had to give in to great politics.
Japanese Production of Our Class - Credits
Nasha Kurasa
Based on the play by Tadeusz Słobodzianek
Translated by Koichi Kuyama and Kaori Nakayama
Directed by Hisao Takase
Set design: Jiro Shima
Music: Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, Kumiko Takara
Choreography: Eriko Shinkai
Cast: Sayako Makino (Dora), Mayumi Sako (Zocha), Ikuko Yamamoto (Rachelka, then Marianna), Kodai Fujigawa (Jakub Kac), Kunihiro Kawabe (Rysiek), Yoshiaki Kameda (Menachem), Fuyuki Sawada (Zygmunt), Akio Nakamura (Heniek), Akihiko Shimizu (Władek), Yasuyuki Unezawa (Abram)
Editor: SRS
Source: www.thisislondon.co.uk, pl.instytut-polski.org, e-teatr.pl